The present invention relates generally to musical performance practicing devices and methods for assisting in manual performance practice on musical instruments, and more particularly to an improved musical performance practicing device and method which provide a variety of training menus to allow a trainee player to acquire a skill necessary for performance of a particular music piece or composition.
For people which want to practice performing on a musical instrument, particularly on the piano, it has been conventional to go to school where they are trained in a fundamental performance technique step by step in accordance with some instruction book ("Beyer" in the case of the piano). However, as generally appreciated today, it would take an enormous amount of time to acquire a sufficient ability or skill in playing the piano and thus practice on the piano has to be started in childhood and done continually; in this sense, the above-mentioned approach can not be suitably applied to those who start practicing on the piano only after having grown up to adulthood.
In recent years, musical instruments equipped with an automatic performance function have been used for practice on the natural piano and the like. In this case, each of such musical instruments automatically performs a designated target music piece, i.e., a composition which a trainee player aims to perform, so that the player can practice performing the entire music piece or repetitively performing only a selected partial phrase of the music piece with the instrument's automatic performance as a performance assistance or guide.
The above-mentioned conventional approach of mastering a performance skill step by step starting with the fundamental performance technique is not suitable for adults, because adults tend to feel it troublesome to go to school and it is often difficult for them to spare a practice time due to their busy schedule or the like. Although many adults may consider it unnecessary to do the fundamental practice at their age, not a few of them wish to become skillful or proficient enough to perform one to several music pieces, and these enthusiastic persons can practice by use of the above-mentioned musical instrument equipped with an automatic performance function. However, if they stick to the approach of practicing a predetermined music piece repetitively with the aid of the instrument's automatic performance, there would arise the problems that their skill acquired through the practice can not be applied to any other compositions than the predetermined music piece and they easily get tired of the stereotyped practice.